In the provincial town of Arbatov, Bender, now 33, meets two small-time conmen — young and brash Shura Balaganov and old Mikhail Panikovsky, who make a living by pretending to be children of the Soviet revolutionary hero Lieutenant Schmidt. When Balaganov tells his new friend about the underground millionaire Alexander Koreiko, who made his fortune by illegal means and now lives in Chernomorsk under the guise of a poor, petty accountant, Bender plans to blackmail Koreiko out of a part of his money, and thus, to get to Chernomorsk, he enlists the aid of the honest, but not too bright, driver Adam Kozlevich and his Alleged Car the Antelope Gnu.

In the second part, our "heroes" work up the ranks of Hercules, the company Koreiko works in, where everyone else is nearly as corrupt as Koreiko himself (although perhaps not secretly so rich): Hercules, which is supposed to carry out financial operations for lumber materials, is in fact solely dedicated to fighting another organization for the building it occupies. By blackmailing various employees of Hercules, up to its leader Polykhayev, Bender amasses enough evidence about Koreiko's shady past to confront him and demands one million rubles in exchange for not exposing him to the authorities. However, Koreiko manages to escape, Bender's companions are dispersed, and he continues his chase alone.

In part three, Bender finally finds Koreiko again on a railroad construction site in Central Asia and forces him to give away one of his ten millions. Despite this, the two millionaires eventually part on relatively good terms. The rest of the novel is spent describing Bender's fruitless attempts to put his million to use, as in the Soviet Union, money is worth less than state privileges, and most services and goods simply aren't available to him as an unaffiliated "private person". Eventually he tries to flee the country into the capitalist world, or more precisely the city of his dreams, Rio de Janeiro; however, he is stopped on the Romanian border and loses almost his entire fortune.

Three screen adaptation have been made: a 1968 black-and-white film by Mikhail Schweizer, generally well-liked, a 1993 version by Vasili Pichul and a 2005 miniseries by Ulyana Shilkina.

Big Store: "Horns and Hooves", which also has become synonymous with this kind of suspicious office in Russia.

Subverted in that Ostap left the Big Store with full intent to make it vanish, and then returned and found it to be nationalized, rebuilt and actually trading in horns and hooves.

Also a number of unnamed ones, setup by Koreyko or mentioned by Funt.

Catch Phrase: In addition to those from The Twelve Chairs, Bender got "I will be the one commanding the parade!" ("Командовать парадом буду я!") Panikovsky has "You're a poor, miserable person!" ("Вы жалкая, ничтожная личность!")

Corrupt Church: The two Catholic priests who manipulate Kozlevich's faith to get the Antelope for service in their church. Bender, who is an atheist, gets Kozlevich to abandon them by mocking Christianity.

Darker and Edgier: The novel, although brimming with wit and humour, turns out to be more depressing than its predecessor.

Even Evil Has Standards: Bender is adamant that his "money-extraction" techniques are "relatively honest", and that he never crosses the criminal code (although the police would probably disagree with him). Even he's disgusted by the machinations of the Herculesians and Koreiko.

Fake Nationality: the book mentions in passing and some of the adaptations show as posters elements of Bender's act as a Yogi.

Hillbilly Moonshiner: Ostap Bender reveals his experience as a moonshiner when he teaches visiting American bootleggers some Soviet moonshine recipes.

There are strong hints, that Bender had no idea what he was talking about and was making it up on the fly. It is not the first time he does so, nor the last.

Impersonating an Officer: Ostap Bender tries to do this with the underground millionaire Koreiko. Ostap wants Koreiko to admit that a large sum of money was indeed stolen from him, to confirm that he's richer than he seems. However, it's a Paper-Thin Disguise consisting of only a police hat, and the hat has a coat of arms of the wrong city, to boot. Koreiko later points that out.

Insane Troll Logic: How Panikovsky convinces Shura, that the aforementioned kettlebells are indeed made of gold.

Shura: What if they aren't made of gold?

Panikovsky: Now that's rich! And what, I daresay, are they made of then?

Insanity Defense: Accountant Berlaga gets himself committed as a ploy to evade the "purging" of Hercules. It doesn't work.

Karma Houdini: Koreiko. He amassed his ten millions by such acts as trading first need goods in a war-torn city, robbing trains with food meant for starving peasants, and exploiting the government by getting investments into his sham enterprises. When Bender gets his one million, he leaves Koreiko alone with nine. Granted, anything else would be out of character.

Lonely at the Top: Koreiko amassed a huge wealth, but he cannot spend it openly and, out of constant fear of exposure, is forced to live in object misery, so much so that he cannot even woo a girl he likes. Bender more or less joins hims there when he wrings his part of the wealth out of Koreiko.

Mock Guffin: Panikovsky believes that Koreiko's kettlebells are made of gold and only coated with iron. Together with Balaganov, he tries to saw them in half, with obvious results.

Not to say about the Chernomorsk's "picket jackets" old men. UsuallyNaturally always, their conversations involve a phrase X is the man! (or the head, if translated directly) and end with hopes that Chernomorsk will be an independent city one day.

"Did you hear the news? Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) arrived to Dundee (Scottish city)!" - "Gandhi is the man. And Dundee is the man."

Obfuscating Disability: Before the revolution, Panikovsky used to pretend to be blind to rob people helping him cross the street. He tries the trick again with Koreiko, but is thwarted by an approaching bus.

Recursive Import: A bizarre case mentioned in the shared biographies of the authors: after the book was published overseas, the publishing house where they worked was approached by an old lady, who was a French language enthusiast, about publishing a translation she was working on for 'this quaint French novel about Soviet con men'.

Revised Ending: In its original serialized form, the novel ended with Ostap Bender giving away his useless wealth to the government and marrying Zosya Sinitskaya. In the final, universally known edition, he instead loses it when trying to cross the Romanian border. The 2005 miniseries combines both endings: Kozlevich drives him and Zosya to the ZAGS after he fails to cross the border. Most modern editions of the book include both endings for the reader to choose between.

Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: On a national(!) scale. After Bender aquires his coveted million, he expects everyone just to bend over for him and throw their services at him with dollar signs in their eyes. No such luck. All the luxuries (such as they are in the postbellum USSR) and substancial resources in the country are state-governed and reserved for people of actual trades, so almost nobody gives a damn that he's rich - he's not a part of the system, thus he's not getting any of the benefits.

Secretly Wealthy: Koreiko, who is referred to as an "underground millionaire", but not for reasons described in the trope. He's hiding his millions because he knows he can't use his money in Soviet Union and so he lives as a poor man (almost bordering on poverty), working on extremely low pay job, and basically all his possessions are two iron kettlebells to keep himself in good health — all to live for the day the Soviet regime falls. Perhaps we should we say he is Obfuscatingly Poor.

In hindsight, the ultimate irony is that even if someone like Koreiko lived to see the fall of the regime, they still wouldn't profit from it. The reform of 1992 made Soviet money near-worthless. Circa 1997, 10 million rubles was monthly pay for renting an apartment.

Even before that, the 1947 money reform rendered a lot of Real Life people like him penniless. You needed a lot of connections to launder any significant sum, and Koreiko doesn't appear to have any.

Sticky Fingers: Shura. In his last scene he got captured by a mob after he tried to steal a wallet. He didn't even want the money — he did it just out of habit.

Especially tragic since he just got handed 50,000 rubbles, and is not, in general, a bad guy.

Unexplained Recovery: Bender was described as dead at the end of The Twelve Chairs. In The Little Golden Calf, he briefly mentions his past partnership with Vorobyaninov and thanks surgeons for saving his life.

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